Arising from the telephone conference meeting with our barrister it was decided that as there will likely be a new Minister after the election we need to put our case to that person afresh before taking the legal path. This is because the courts would not take kindly to suing somebody who has previously had nothing to do with the decisions against us. To that end our legal team is preparing a brief for the incoming Minister.

National Media Exposure

In the meantime we are continuing our preparations with a national media organisation to expose our claim to the Australian people. No action will commence until we have a decision on the legal advice

We continue to monitor it because it is a good example of the power of national media to influence the Government and we can learn valuable lessons from this inquiry. The timing for the independent inquiry is to be decided after the commencement of the 46th Parliament. The so called independent body is to be the Commonwealth Ombudsman: this decision has been criticised as not being independent of Government.

“A week after our return to Brisbane we sent an RCB Brief of the matter to the Minister and Ted Chitham wrote him a personal letter appealing to his decency in decision making and the need to act. We are still waiting for a response for continuation of the unfinished meeting or a decision.”

Today (15th May 2019) the RCBRG received a letter from the Vice Chief of the Defence Force Vice Admiral David Johnston AO, RAN in which he thanked us for our correspondence: Letter of 5th December 2018 to Minister Chester, Letter of 21st February 2019 to Minister Chester, Emails of 26th February 2019 to Minister Payne and Sen Fawcett, and Letter of 22nd March 2019 to Minister Chester; and counters our claims with reasons that are challengeable. Again he repeats this sentence: “In the absence of compelling new evidence the Department of Defence does not intend to examine this matter further.”

Thanks all for your support, suggestions, comments and donations: they are greatly appreciated. I can assure you all of the outstanding dedication of the RCBRG that remains resolute in its determination to pursue our claim.

Veterans medically discharged, including all those with mental health wounds and at risk of self-harm, can receive an Invalidity Benefit from their superannuation scheme.

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) taxes these variable payments as ordinary income rather than at the lower rates that can be applied to superannuation fund disability benefits.

Since 2015, Veterans have been trying to get the ATO to justify their position and advise what law they are using to treat their invalidity payments this way. The ATO has used every dodgy practice in the book to avoid answering the question.

In 2018, Veterans had the Administrative Appeals Tribunal consider this matter. On 1 June, the ATO’s case developed a “fatal flaw” so they requested an adjournment to “consult” with their bureaucratic masters. Although Justice Logan agreed to the adjournment, he expressed concern that the ATO might try to change the law to fix their case before the Hearing resumed.

On 7 December, two days before the Hearing resumed, changes to the law, backdated to 2007, were made to fix the shoddy ATO argument. In other words, the rules and the goalposts were changed at half-time by the faceless bureaucrats. But this is not a game! The men and women of the ADF are trained to obey the rules, even if it means they might die.

Politicians should not let faceless bureaucrats change the law to beat wounded veterans in court and no Australian should be at risk of having the law changed and backdated in the middle of their court case.

This should not happen to any citizen. Veterans have fought for democracy and the rule of law and call on all Australians to join the fight against this blatant injustice! There will be limited time after the election for the Senate or the House of Representatives to pass a Disallowance Motion negating the retrospective changes affecting the case being heard.

The first being the retention of a specific Department of Veterans Affairs. This alone gives credibility to the notion of a ‘veteran centric’ department focused on the issues of veteran and their families.

Second is the commitment to adequately resource the Association to enhance its ability to properly represent serving ADF members in a professional manner particularly at Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal hearings. Such recognition of its role in representing serving personnel has been long sought from successive governments without success.

Finally in commenting on Labor’s ‘Employment Package’ and its ‘National Families Engagement and Support Strategy’, the National President of DFWA, Kel Ryan, stated that he was particularly pleased that ‘Oasis Townsville’, a long-held aspiration of the Townsville veterans community to have a single hub to which all veterans and their families could go, would be appropriately funded.

The ‘Oasis’ is a model concept that could in whole, or in part, be readily replicated in other parts of Australia. The concept is reflective of the collaboration that is possible between Ex-Service Organisations to not only help each other to achieve outcomes for a common cause but to have a shared focus on supporting serving and ex-serving members of the ADF by making the lives of these men, women and their families better, healthier, happier and more rewarding.

On August 18, 1966, 108 Australian soldiers were ambushed by the Viet Cong in what would become known as the Vietnam War’s Battle of Long Tan. Against all odds, the Aussies won the fight.

Now, the man who led them to victory is fighting to have his troops recognised with the highest honour.

The Battle of Long Tan, in which Aussie troops were outnumbered 20 to one, has gained greater recognition in recent years, but it wasn’t always that way.

The story of that four-hour firefight in a muddy rubber plantation during a torrential downpour will be retold in a new Australian movie, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan. Directed by Kriv Stenders (best known for Red Dog), it will premiere on the battle’s 53rd anniversary, August 18.

Its final paragraphs, describing ‘an extensive record support for veterans’, are decidedly underwhelming. For example, delivering support for 280,000 veterans is nothing more than what is required under existing legislation; and improved processes and claim procedures in DVA are self evidently needed. Any Government that did not do these things would be derelict in its duty.

The statement it made that the Coalition is “delivering [its] $1.4 billion in fairer indexation for military superannuants”, if not deliberately misleading, certainly avoids telling the entire truth about what is happening with military superannuation. Assertions like these conceal the real situation, and it is disingenuous to make it appear to be otherwise.

The Release made no mention of any intention to deliver:

• a plan to restore a proper level of TPI/SR economic loss compensation payments. [It is reprehensible that this particular issue was not dealt with long ago.];

• fair indexation for under 55 year old DFRDB superannuants, let alone anyone on MSBS;

• proper indexation for preserved funds in Commonwealth hands; or

• restitution for any substandard super indexation, dating at least back to 1990 for MSBS and 1990 – 2014 for DFRDB.

All of these long standing issues have a direct, incontrovertible and deleterious effect on veterans’ cost of living. They all deserve a very high priority, well before any consideration of expenditure on memorials is placed on the agenda.

And yet, neither the Coalition, nor Labor, make any undertaking in their election promises to settle these matter once and for all.

Is this really the ‘Fair Go’ that our veterans, like all Australians, deserve?

Does it really reflect how we ‘honour the service and sacrifice of our service personnel’?

“The Coalition will boost support for veterans and their families as part of a $63.2 million suite of initiatives to create Veterans’ Wellbeing Centres across the country, deliver job opportunities and secure health and housing services for the future. We will invest $30 million in a network of six new Veterans’ Wellbeing Centres that will bring together the key services for our veterans and their families.The new Centres will integrate government and non-government support for Australians who have served in our Defence Forces with local health services community organisations, advocacy and wellbeing support. They will partner with ex-service organisations and state and territory governments across Australia.

Our government has a strong track record delivering services and support to our veterans and their families. We understand the role that ex-service organisations play in supporting veterans after their service has concluded.In order to support them to deliver those services, we want to help more organisations find more veterans meaningful civilian jobs. That’s why we will also invest $16.2 million to support organisations including Soldier On, Team Rubicon and State Branches of the RSL. Along with other ex-service organisations, these groups will also be able to use the new Veterans’ Wellbeing Centres to deliver their services.

We know how important exercise physiology and physiotherapy are for Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI) veterans so we will deliver an extra $17 million to exempt them from the new ‘Treatment Cycle’ requirements that were due to commence on 1 July 2019, allowing TPI veterans to continue to access these important allied health services under existing arrangements.

A re-elected Morrison Government will also make it easier for veterans to access the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme. We will extend the time for eligible veterans to access the program from two to five years after they complete their ADF service. This will allow veterans and their families more time to settle their affairs and find a home once their service has been completed.We will also extend eligibility to the Defence Service Homes Insurance Scheme to allow any current or former ADF member who has at least one day of service to access home building insurance through the Scheme. That means veterans can access more competitively priced home building insurance, particularly in disaster prone areas, which will lower the cost of living for veterans and their families, particularly in northern Australia.

The Coalition has introduced legislation to create an Australian Veterans’ Covenant, which, in partnership with the ex-service community, will formally recognise the unique nature of military service and acknowledge and honour the service and sacrifice of our service personnel.

We also understand it is important our veterans are appropriately recognised by the community and businesses, even when they’re not wearing their medals and uniforms. That’s why we’ve launched the Australian Veterans’ Card and Lapel Pin, so veterans can be appropriately recognised, including by businesses who want to offer special discounts and offers to veterans.

The Coalition’s plan to put our veterans and their families first builds on an extensive record of support for veterans: – The record $11 billion we deliver to support 280,000 veterans and their families each year – Extending access to the DVA Gold Card for civilian medical teams in the Vietnam War – $500 million we’ve committed to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs to better meet the needs of veterans and their families – $100 million we invested in the Sir John Monash Centre in France – $498 million committed over the next nine years to redevelop the Australian War Memorial and allow the Memorial to display more of their collection and proudly tell the stories from recent years in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Solomon Islands and East Timor. – Delivering our $1.4 billion in fairer indexation for military superannuants. – Supporting Kookaburra Kids to help the children of veterans affected by mental illness. – Cutting waiting times for claims through the Department and streamlining the process through the new MyService system

Only the Coalition can be trusted to deliver for veterans and their families.”

The Coalition government has promised to invest $30 million into the creation of Veterans’ Wellbeing Centres that it says will bring together the key services for veterans and their families.

The establishment of the centres is part of a $63.2 million series of initiatives that will help deliver job opportunities for veterans across the country, as well as securing health and housing services.

The new centres will integrate government and non-government support for Australians who have serviced in the Defence Force, partnering with ex-service organisations and state and territory governments.

It comes alongside a host of other promises offered by the Coalition, including:

$16.2 million investment to support organisations including Soldier On, Team Rubicon and state branches of the RSL;

$17 million investment to exempt totally and permanently incapacitated (TPI) veterans from the new ‘treatment cycle’ requirements that were due to commence in July;

Extend the time offered for eligible veterans to access the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme from two to five years after completing ADF service; and

Extend eligibility to the Defence Service Homes Insurance Scheme to allow current or former ADF members to access home building insurance

“Our government has a strong track record delivering services and support to our veterans and their families. We understand the role that ex-service organisations play in supporting veterans after their service has concluded,” a joint release from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Darren Chester said.

The Alliance of Defence Service Organisation (ADSO) welcomes the opportunity to announce its core Policy Objectives as a timely reminder to those seeking election to the 46th Parliament of Australia.

A significant portion of the veterans’ community, speaking largely with a single voice, continues to seek redress of a series of key issues, many of which have been outstanding for too long.Some issues have been the subject of unfulfilled promises, not the least of which includes providing Australia’s most disabled Veterans and their families with an adequate standard of living.

In commenting on the Objectives and encouraging all sides of politics to find legislative ways to redress each issue in turn, ADSO’s National Spokesman, Kel Ryan, wished to acknowledge that the Government, with the Labor Opposition’s support, had taken action on a long-held key Objective, namely to legislate an Australian Military (Veterans) Covenant that gives formal recognition to the Unique Nature of Military Service. The Covenant will be an early item of business for Senators in the next parliament to debate and give effect to it in law.

ADSO also wished to acknowledge the recent veterans’ policy announcements made by both the Government and the Opposition. The bi-partisan approach to an independent inquiry into the administration of the DFRDB commutation arrangements is particularly welcomed. As the Commonwealth Ombudsman will chair the inquiry, we recommend that as many of the issues as possible plaguing the DFRDB scheme from its outset be addressed by the Ombudsman, irrespective of the restrictive Terms of Reference. Those affected by the scheme have long-held the view that, while fair indexation was an abiding issue that must be fixed, there were equally other aspects of the scheme that should be remedied. The illogical and inappropriate use of out-of-date 1962-vintage life tables is but one.

Glaringly omitted from the policy statements by both the Government and the Opposition is recognition of the immensity of the advocacy and welfare work, and the vital role the wider ex-service community plays in support of veterans and their families. That includes the 18-member strong ADSO entity that speaks with one voice, Without exception, they are all not only volunteer-based but lack completely any financial help beyond the meagre amounts available to each Association separately under the DVA Grant-in Aid scheme. And yet ADSO with its vast veterans membership base, missed completely any mention in policy announcements that it too would be supported along with other service providers.ADSO calls on both sides of politics to acknowledge the contribution of ADSO by funding it for the work it performs on behalf of Government and DVA, and the broad Australian veterans community.

Relatives of the Australian servicemen who went missing in action in the Korean War almost 70 years ago are hopeful the mystery of what happened to them could soon be solved.

Authorities in the United States are testing human remains exhumed from a military cemetery in Hawaii, where they were buried without identification after being transferred from North and South Korea in the 1950s and ’60s.

It is the first sign of progress for Australian families on the identifications since Australia and the US signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Korean War remains identification in August 2018.

While experts believe the remains likely belong largely to American servicemen, the families of the 43 Australian servicemen still unaccounted for decades after fighting ended on the Korean peninsula hope the tests will identify their relatives among the buried.

These families have long been calling for the exhumations, and many have provided DNA samples for the tests.

“[The exhumations] are a great source of hope,” says Sydney lawyer Julie Dorrington whose uncle, Royal Australian Air Force pilot Donald Campbell Ellis, was among the first Australian servicemen reported missing in North Korea in December 1950, six months after the start of the Korean War.

Pilot Officer Ellis was just 23 years old when his Mustang plane was shot down east of the North Korean capital Pyongyang. He is not presumed to have survived, and like the other Australians officially recorded as missing in action during the Korean War, his remains have never been found.

“We believe there is a strong chance that some of those who are buried in Hawaii are Australian because, according to Australian Defence Force records, missing Australian servicemen were in some of the areas where the unidentified remains were originally found,” says Dorrington.

The US Defence Department agency that accounts for missing military personnel, known as DPAA, plans to exhume more than 650 sets of remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. The work, paid for by the US government, will happen in stages and is expected to take about six years to complete.

Individual remains have been removed from the cemetery before, but this is the first mass exhumation of so-called “unknowns” at the site atop the extinct volcanic Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu.“WE GET A LOT OF INFORMATION THROUGH DENTAL RESTORATION, BIOLOGICAL PROFILES – HEIGHT, AGE, ANCESTRY – OFTEN WE CAN GET INFORMATION ABOUT CAUSE OF DEATH.”

Exhumed remains are being sent to the DPAA’s Central Identification Laboratory, also in Honolulu, for testing. The laboratory’s director, Dr John Byrd, says many of the remains are well preserved, which bodes well for DNA identification.

Byrd says chemicals used to preserve the bodies on the Korean peninsula decades ago mean scientists now require sophisticated forensic processes to extract DNA data for identification – methods unavailable at the time of burial.

Confirming the identity of missing service personnel conclusively, and the circumstances in which they died, often requires more investigation beyond simply testing DNA.

“We get a lot of information through dental restoration, biological profiles – height, age, ancestry – often we can get information about cause of death such as gunshot wounds or blast trauma,” says Byrd. “Everything is systematically checked against reference samples from Australian families.”

Since October 2018, more than 30 sets of remains have been exhumed from the memorial cemetery. However, Byrd is at pains to temper the hopes of Australian families who believe their loved ones are buried in Hawaii.

“We don’t have any compelling reason to believe any of them are Australian at this point,” he says. “We won’t be surprised to occasionally find South Korean soldiers’ remains among those we are exhuming … Had there been information that suggested they were Australian back in the 1950s they would never have been buried in that cemetery.

“Australians and other allies are possible to find but you can’t point to any grave from the cemetery and say there’s good reason to believe they’re Aussie.”

Byrd says it may be possible to find Australian remains “co-mingled” with other unidentified remains in storage at the DPAA facility, which are already being compared with Australian relatives’ DNA samples on file.

The exhumations in Hawaii stand in contrast to the apparent lack of progress in Australia’s effort to investigate its Korean War missing inside North Korea.

Last year’s Singapore summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un saw North Korea agree to send thousands of remains to the US. For Australia’s part, former foreign minister Julie Bishop offered “expert and forensic assistance” to North Korea after “multiple representations” about investigating Australia’s wartime missing. Almost a year later, the Australian government is yet to make any public confirmation of a breakthrough.

“It’s taken so long to get to where we are today,” says Ian Saunders, OAM, who has spent years advocating Australia focus its search on the suspected Korean War remains located in the US.

He hopes to find his father, Private John Philip Saunders, who disappeared on the Korean peninsula in January 1953, a day before his 26th birthday, as well as other Australians.

The belief that Australian remains could be found at the Hawaiian cemetery, Saunders says, is based on information from the Australian Korean War diaries in Canberra and what he describes as “documented cogent and circumstantial evidence” in the Australian and US military materials he has researched for the past two decades.

Saunders’ findings have helped determine the last known locations of Australia’s Korean War missing and are being used in official Australian investigations.

In 2015, Saunders received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his work lobbying the federal government to boost efforts to locate missing Korean War servicemen, and for his contact with relevant US and South Korean government agencies to investigate their recovery processes.

Saunders questions whether DPAA scientists are using the supplied Australian DNA samples in all identifications.

“We are waiting on confirmation, proof – not a handwritten letter by these people – a spreadsheet that confirms the Australian DNA samples that exist in the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii have been compared,” he insists.

The Australian Defence Department won’t say whether it expects remains of missing Australian servicemen to be found during the exhumations.

“Some family members have speculated it is possible that missing Australian soldiers may have been misclassified as US unknown casualties and consequently buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific,” a department statement said.

“Defence, in collaboration with the DPAA, have explored every possible route to support or dispel this speculation [including] dental, anthropological, historical and DNA analysis. At this time, no Australian soldier remains have been identified among those analysed by the US.”

The working group initiated and helped draft the MOU between Australia and the US on Korean War remains recovery and identification, which took about six years to complete. Although not legally binding, it encourages more information sharing and formalises existing co-operation.

The DPAA’s Byrd confirms that as a result of the agreement Australian defence authorities can expect to receive previously withheld information about the Hawaii laboratory’s identification work.

“We are very reluctant, if not prohibited, from sharing inside data and information and test results with just anybody,” he says. “The MOU gives us a basis for sharing information – it gives us reason to give authorisation to send information to counterparts in Australia if, for example, we find some compelling test results.

“It tells both sides what is fair use of that information because some of it can be sensitive.”

Saunders suggests the test of the memorandum of understanding’s success will be in the positive identifications of Australian missing servicemen that it facilitates – as happened, he argues, for the US after it signed a similar agreement with South Korea.

Meanwhile, the Australian and US defence departments have agreed to send some of the relatives of Australia’s Korean War missing to visit the DPAA laboratory in Hawaii later this year for a firsthand look at the work being done to identify exhumed remains from the Korean peninsula.

Julie Dorrington hopes to be among them. “There is now a much higher chance of certainty for the missing Australians’ families that we will get the information one way or another. Even if it is a negative result – it is still important to know.”

This article by Kristina Kukoljawas first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on Apr 27, 2019 as “A path to recovery”. Subscribe here.

Donations

Visit State or Territory Associations

Search

Search for:

Become A Member

Email Address

First Name

Last Name

Follow Us On:

THE RAR CORPORATION IS A MEMBER OF THE ALLIANCE OF DEFENCE SERVICE ORGANISATIONS (ADSO)

ADSO COMBINES THE STRENGTH OF SEVEN MAJOR ESO'S TO GIVE A POWERFUL COLLECTIVE VOICE IN THE FIGHT FOR A BETTER FUTURE FOR CURRENT AND FORMER MEMBERS OF THE ADF AND THEIR FAMILIES. THE GOVERNMENT LISTENS WHEN ADSO SPEAKS AND IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL OUR MEMBERS TO SUPPORT THE WORK ADSO IS DOING IN WHATEVER WAY THEY CAN. PLEASE VISIT THE ADSO WEBSITE ADSO.ORG.AU TO LEARN MORE AND FIND OUT HOW WE CAN HELP YOU.